American League Roundup : John Wins His A’s Debut; Boggs’ Streak Ended

Tommy John, making his debut with the Oakland A’s, pitched six strong innings Friday night at Milwaukee to gain the victory in a 7-3 win over the Brewers.

Dwayne Murphy had two singles and a home run, and Mike Davis also homered to help John win for the first time since May 11.

John gave up four hits, a run and did not walk a batter. He gave way to Keith Atherton, who yielded the last two runs.

John had a 2-4 record for the Angels before he was released, with an earned-run average of 4.70. His last victory for them came May 11 in relief.

“It’s tough going eight weeks between starts,” John told the Associated Press. “I was getting ahead and throwing strikes. It’s something I’ve always done. The main thing is to pitch offensively.”

John, who has made several comebacks in his career, including one with the Dodgers in 1973 after delicate surgery was performed on his elbow, won his 258th.

His performance didn’t surprise Manager George Bamberger of the Brewers.

“John knows what’s going on,” Bamberger said. “He’s effective because he keeps the ball down and he keeps throwing strikes.”

A’s Manager Jackie Moore was also impressed. “He looked like he’d been in our rotation all year,” Moore said. “It was a typical Tommy John outing.”

Boston 6, Seattle 2--Wade Boggs’ hitting streak came to a halt at 28 games, but the Red Sox’swinning streak reached six in this game at Boston with the help of Marty Barrett’s wind-aided three-run home run.

“If (Hurricane) Bob had hit I might have made contact,” Boggs said after striking out twice, walking and hitting a long fly. “At least I walked. Every good thing must come to an end, but most important, we won. A streak like I had is a lot of luck.”

The walk extended Boggs streak of reaching base safely to 50 games.

Al Nipper pitched 7 innings to win for the sixth time in his last seven decisions.

Jim Beattie, activated just before the game after being out six weeks with tendinitis, was belted out in the fourth inning and the Mariners went on to lose their sixth in a row.

Kansas City 7, Cleveland 1--The Royals gave rookie Ramon Romero a rough baptism to the majors in this game at Kansas City.

Frank White, suddenly a power hitter, hit a two-run homer off the youngster in the third and when Darryl Motley opened the sixth with another one, Romero was gone.

Steve Balboni and Hal McRae also homered for the Royals, who advanced to within five games of the Angels in the West. Danny Jackson went seven innings to improve his record to 9-6.

John Testrake, the pilot of the TWA plane hijacked at Athens, Greece last month by terrorists, threw out the first pitch. He was given a standing ovation by the crowd of 27,860.

Texas 9, New York 8--It seemed a cinch the Yankees would end their slump at Arlington, Tex. Going into the eighth inning, with their ace, Ron Guidry going for his 12th in a row, the Yankees led, 8-4.

But neither Guidry nor bullpen ace Dave Righetti could stop the Rangers and they scored five times to hand the Yankees their fourth defeat in a row and drop them six games behind Toronto in the East.

Guidry gave up a walk and two singles to load the bases with nobody out. In came Righetti and before the left-hander retired the Rangers he gave up three more hits and made two wild pitches. Wayne Tolleson’s hit drove in the winning run.

Although he gave up Don Mattingly’s 12th home run in the top of the eighth, Dickie Noles (4-6) was the winner.

Rickey Henderson continued his drive toward the batting title. He went 3 for 5 to raise his average to .353.

Minnesota 6, Detroit 5--The Twins continued to make life miserable for the Tigers, improving their record against Detroit to 8-2 in this game at Minneapolis.

A two-run triple by Kirby Puckett was the key blow in a three-run fourth inning that made a winner out of Mike Smithson (10-7).

Ron Davis gave up three hits in two innings, but he also struck out four to pick up his 15th save.

Darrell Evans hit his 20th home run, a 400-foot smash in the seventh inning.

Chicago 9, Baltimore 8--Carlton Fisk didn’t hit a home run in this game at Chicago but he did the next best thing. With one out and two on in the ninth inning, he hit the center-field fence with a triple that gave the White Sox the victory.

Earlier, the slugging catcher drove in a run with a double.

The White Sox rallied from a 7-2 deficit. Eddie Murray drove in two of the runs, one on his 17th home run, as the Orioles built the lead in three innings.